One event in history has a big impact on my life. The Holocaust. My grandmother lost all her family members, except one uncle to the Holocaust. To this day, I still can't believe something like that happened.
The thought that Aribert Heim, "Doctor Death", may still be alive and hiding makes me sick to my stomach.
"Heim scared his prisoners to death," said a survivor. The SS doctor operated without anesthetics, and Jewish inmates were poisoned with various insertions directly into the heart in order to induce death more quickly. The doctor wanted to see which poison was the fastest and cheapest way to kill people. When he was bored, it is said that he timed his patients' deaths with a stopwatch. He removed human organs without anesthetic to see how long victims lived. He is also accused of cutting off the head of a murdered Jewish prisoner and boiling off the flesh to enable the skull to be used as an exhibit.
Information regarding the campaign to hunt him down:
- Dr Aribert Heim, now 93, is highest on leading Nazi hunter and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Efraim Zuroff's list (above photo is Efraim holding a picture of Heim)
- The four countries involved are Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil - where large numbers of Nazis are thought to have fled following World War II.
- In July 2007, the Austrian Justice Ministry declared that they would pay €50,000 for information leading to his arrest and extradition to Austria. Other rewards include $460,000 from the Wiesenthal Center. Another reward is 270,000 Euros [130,000 euros from the German government; 130,000 euros from the Wiesenthal Center ; and 10,000 from “Operation: Last Chance.”]
- In early 2006, Heim was believed to be in Chile, where his daughter Waltraud is reported to have lived since the early '70s. Asked about her father's whereabouts by the Chilean authorities, under requests of Germany, Waltraud claimed that Aribert had died in 1993. However, when she tried to recover a million dollar inheritance from him (on an account in his name), she could not provide any death certificate.
- The former Nazi doctor continues to maintain a bank account in Germany containing more than $1.5 million. In the last five years, €300,000 have been withdrawn from his accounts and transferred to Spain and Denmark.
Austrian wanted poster for Heim: